My trip to Charlotte, N.C.,exceeded all my expectations from a business standpoint and an entertainment standpoint. I’m really glad that Bill McKnight of Clevite invited me and I’m glad that I went.
The main reason they invited me was for me to make an appearance at the annual Mahle Clevite Engine Builder’s Showdown held at the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville. It’s a four-round competition for professional engine builders who are employed on various NASCAR teams. I was there for the finals where Dennis Borem and Darrell Hoffman of Pro Motor Engines took the crown. I got to stand right up close to the action as they built their engine in a record 16 minutes and 25 seconds. They edged out Kevin Webber and Scott Vester, of Hendrick Motorsports, who finished with a build time of 17 minutes and 47 seconds.
Those guys are very talented and I was so impressed. I was fortunate to have met them at a reception before the competition. Dennis and Darrell were eating some chicken and various appetizers. I told them it was the meal of champions and I turned out to be right.
My meal came after the show when I went to dinner with some editors from various motorsports publications. Clevite flew them in to cover the showdown. We talked nothing but racing over dinner which was great because if I’m not racing, the next best thing is to talk about it. I also had the opportunity to go with the journalists on a tour of the Rousch Yates Engine shop. It’s a 75,000-square-foot facility with 120 employees where they produce engines for 10 different cars on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit. That whole building was amazing and the tour was very informative.
The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind of meetings and activities. The Kalitta Motrosports marketing team of Rachel Brunner and Ben Marshall came in with the Kalitta Motorsports general manager and KB Racing crew chief, Jim Oberhofer. On Thursday night, we enjoyed a great meal with Tony Merritt and John Suggs of Mac Tools.
It wouldn’t be a trip to Mooresville without visiting our KB Racing Pro Stock teammates at their shop in Mooresville. When we got there, Greg was busily working in the engine room. He showed us some stuff at the shop and then we went to lunch with him and some of the guys. We later learned that he ended up staying at the shop until midnight that night to make up for the lost time. After lunch, we found Jason Line, Rob Downing, and some of the other guys at their neighboring dragstrip. They were working and making laps down the track in the 90-degree heat. Greg, Jason, Rob and all the guys are constantly working. They have earned every piece of every trophy that that they have. For that, I am motivated and inspired by them.
In addition to their shop work, Greg and Jason also had some appearances for Coca-Cola with Ron Capps. I joined them Saturday night along with Ben, Jim O, Rachel for a reception in downtown Charlotte hosted by Coca-Cola. We all got our picture taken together with Mike Adams of IMG which is the company that handles the marketing for Coca-Cola. Senator John McCain, the governor or Tennessee, Elliot Sadler, and a lot of the Coke executives were in attendance. After the reception, the party moved outdoors for a concert by Cheap Trick on the Coca-Cola stage. It was cool for all of us to spend some time together outside of a race.
During the day on Saturday and Sunday, Rachel and I did a lot of walking around. We had a couple of different meetings which I’m hoping to be able to tell you about soon. We observed some of the ways that companies promote their products at the track. We had garage passes so it was neat to walk around and see the teams up close. We I caught a glimpse of a few of the drivers as they walked from inside the coach to their cars in the garage area. It was really neat to be on the infield during driver introductions before the 600 on Sunday. They amount of people they draw to the race is amazing.
The whole weekend was a great experience. Bill McKnight from Clevite made sure we had garage passes and suite passes so I was very thankful for that. We had to get up at 3:30 a.m. Monday morning for our early morning flight back to Michigan. As is the normal routine, I had enough time to unpack, do my laundry, and repack. I spent one night at home, flew to Kansas City last night, and then drove to Topeka where we will be racing this weekend. I got up at 5 a.m. for a television interview at a CBS station here in Topeka to promote our race. There’s lots of promotional events planned for me over the next couple of days. I can tell that everyone around here is excited to have the NHRA in town. I’m excited to get back in my dragster on Friday; it’s been way too long.